Eating vegetarian isn’t working for me.

Vegetarian diets are healthy but they can entice you to eat too many carbohydrates. Protein, especially animal protein, is satisfying and when it’s omitted from the diet, it may leave you wanting more.

I tried the vegetarian lifestyle for a few months now and I think know I am eating too many carbs. I don’t know if this is because I am less satisfied (the protein/satiety thing) or if it’s just that I love carbs and will naturally eat more of them.

I need to find a balance…I’m going back to a flexitarian diet and see how that works for me. I won’t eat meat very often and I hope the vegetarians don’t hate me. I tried it but it wasn’t for me.

Stay tuned…for the sake of this blog, I’ll continue to be a walking nutrition experiment and share what I find out with you.

6 Responses

Nina
I agree with you. I tried to be a vegetarian for a few months and gravitated back to eating meat. I will say that I try to choose fish or chicken first and red meat last whenever possible. I also enjoy the occasional serving of bacon or pepperoni on a pizza. Overall I have cut down on how much meat I eat and I think that moderation is the best approach. Being a vegetarian for those few months certainly did not help me lose weight, in fact my total cholesterol and LDL were higher than they had been the year before when I had been eating meat.

Nina, I also prefer flexitarian. I am not eating nearly as much meat as I did years ago and in fact consume many more beans now. I found that this helped my overall cholesterol and general well being. But I also find if I don’t eat meat of some type at least once a day (and yes I count eggs as “meat”) I am prone to overeat on carbs (and not the healthy whole grain ones!) 50 years of habits don’t get broken overnight!

That’s a great idea (flexitarian) and mainly how I eat too. It is very hard to be totally vegetarian. I eat meat from time to time and not always once a week, it depends on what I’m doing and what is enviromentally going on around me. It is a healthy alternative to being vegetarian.

As a vegetarian of a few years, I can certainly speak to the fact that being a vegetarian is a personal choice. Many people think vegetarians are super judgmental to meat eaters and I’m sure some are, however I believe it to be a personal choice so whatever keeps you happy and healthy is all good.

As someone who cooks almost exclusively vegetarian at home and sometimes eats meat out I know that feeling of “needing” meat. I think we are having difficulty distinguishing between wants and needs. However, there are some great vegetarian recipes out there and when I prepare and eat them I never find myself wishing for meat afterwards. Some of the newer Moosewood cookbooks, for example, have great soups and stews that include beans or lentils or are served over couscous, quinoa or brown rice. If you are eating only cucumber slices I can see how you might feel deprived–are you all cooking actual vegetarian meals or just snacking on tofu? My husband made a broccoli and tofu stirfry over brown rice the other night that was amazing and none of us was hungry after that. I had a fried egg and toast that morning, a peanut butter and banana sandwich and an apple for lunch and snacked on granola and Greek yogurt and an orange during the day. I worked from 9am to 7 pm and couldn’t have eaten anything else that day.

There are so many nuts and seeds high in good oils and proteins, I can’t imagine how anyone can get too many carbs. I am a vegan, I rarely consume any cereals (rice, corn, wheat…). My diet is based on vegetables, fruits, seeds and nuts, sometimes beans. It is possible to live a healthy life like that and without consuming too much bread, pasta, potatoes and similar. And without consuming those who never wanted to die… 😉

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